Misery
by Ceye
Summary: Atem - partner, pharaoh, the other self - is gone, off to the afterlife. Yugi and Anzu don't know what to do. Oneshot, with possible continuation with Peachshipping, Revolutionshipping, and Puzzleshipping (essentially Spiritshipping) after enough feedback.
Yugi sat in his room. He stared blankly down at the deck he and his other self...no, _Atem_ …had shared for so long, had used so many times as a team to defeat the dark desires of so many people. His heart was still; he couldn't remember the last time it had properly mustered to beat without feeling as if it would shatter.

The knowledge that his partner was in the afterlife – had voluntarily left all of his friends in this era behind to go to a place like that to seal the Millennium Items simply because he felt it was his "duty" – utterly destroyed his cheerful persona. Yugi couldn't understand. Forget "duty" from an era long past. Nothing in the world was dangerous enough to get rid of if it meant taking someone like that away from him.

He wanted to scream at the world, but he didn't, mostly for his family's sake. Instead, he cursed his other self.

"If you had just stayed, we'd all gladly fight with you! We'd share your burden like friends should, and go up against anything or any _one_ who tried to misuse those items, I _promise_!"

"So please, just come back," he pled weakly to the pharaoh's face, perfectly preserved in his mind's eye, but which was no longer truly contained within himself.

That courageous, powerful persona had quickly moved his home from Yugi's mind and into his heart; it hadn't taken him long. Yugi longed – even if just for one last time – to be called "aibou" by that beautiful, daring, strong voice living in the depths of his heart.

But it was no use.

 _He_ was gone, and he had been left behind.

* * *

Anzu sat on the railing of the bridge. All of the troubling thoughts that ran through her head were consolidated into one image: the pharaoh, adorned with his gorgeous, regal Egyptian garments, staring back at her.

Her tears began to fall, and – as if each one were a one-hundred pound weight to bear – her hands grabbed onto the railing on both sides of her, narrowly preventing her from falling backward and casting herself into the river far below. She tried to look up, but could see nothing through her burdened shutters.

As if to mourn with her, the clouds opened up and began pouring rain down upon the earth. Her tears became indistinguishable from the rain that tried so desperately to drown her sorrow.

But it couldn't.

 _He_ was gone, and she had been left behind.

* * *

The museum was open. Bound by a twisted, cruel fate, the two best friends found themselves heavily, wearily heading to the ancient stone tablet in the depths of the museum to see the powerful physical remnant of the source of their sorrow.

Anzu called out first. "Yugi!" she said, her hair stuck to her face from the sky's cries.

"Anzu?" he asked.

Without a word, Anzu caught up to him, joining him in his walk to the tablet. The two said nothing more as they walked, minds silently connected in their sour, hopeless misery.

When they came upon the door behind which stood the tablet, Yugi trembled, unable to bring himself to place his hand on the door. Anzu did instead, and Yugi placed his over hers. They pushed.

As the door opened and they came forth, the view of that terrible, horrible tablet shocked them both into falling to their knees, the door closing behind them.

"I never…got to kiss him goodbye," Yugi confessed, unable to fit self-consciousness alongside the drowning emotions he already felt pulsing through his mind as he sat looking at his knees, but no longer seeing.

Anzu's eyes grew wide at his confession. Yugi and Atem had been…? But surely, it had been just as it had been with her. They both loved him. They both loved him with every beat of their heart, every fiber in their soul.

Anzu thought of the date she had been able to go on with Atem. The date he ended up spending a lot of time during talking about Yugi, yet simultaneously the date she had truly been able to connect with him one-on-one, and inspire him to follow his heart.

But that noble heart – bogged down by guilt as he had chosen duty – led him to the afterlife.

In her anger at him, she couldn't keep from shouting. "But you were so lucky!" Anzu screamed woefully at her best friend. Yugi, shocked, met her eyes.

"He was inside of you all along! You could hear him at any time! I would've given **_anything_** for that!" she finished with a voice far louder and more accusatory than she ever meant to use against him in her fervor.

Yugi's eyes struck wide in surprise and horror. Her cruel, unkind words crawled deep into and flipped a switch in the boy's mind, and he felt himself quake in the sudden, tremendous antagonism they awakened in him.

He clenched his fists so tightly he slammed his nails into his palms. "Don't _say_ _that_ to me, Anzu! At least you were able to **_touch_** him!" he screamed. "I couldn't even… I couldn't…" his words cut off as his voice began to choke, his countenance being completely overwhelmed by emotion.

Anzu's mouth hung open in horror at what she had just said to him, her sweet, kind best friend whose heart and intentions were the clearest she'd ever known.

"Yugi…" She immediately rushed forth and held onto him as he began to sink fully to the ground, sympathy and empathy warring with the normally bright features of her face.

"I'm so…so sorry," she said, her mind crumbling into bitter, sad little pieces as she witnessed his do the same. She held him as they shook with the earthquake in their hearts.

Anzu and Yugi stayed on the ground. There were no more happy thoughts anymore. They held onto each other as if they would both rip apart at any moment.

"ATEM! _WHY DID YOU LEAVE US_?"

 ** _"WHY?!"_**

* * *

 **Please review their sad, undeserved sorrow. With enough support and knowledge that people want it, I'd be happy to continue this story. _  
_**


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